Matti Lepistö’s Sculpture park is in a small town called Raahe on the western coast of Finland. Easiest way to reach it, is to take a bus from Oulu. The distance from Oulu is only 75.5 kilometers / 47 miles to the south and from Helsinki 603 kilometers / 375 miles to the north.

This sculpture park consist about 250 sculptures, is on the home yard of the artist Matti Lepistö. First sculptures he made about 35 years ago. The material he uses for making his sculptures is cement. Years and surrounding nature have left their marks on some sculptures. Sculpture park is open in summer and has no entrance fee, but as good habits require, a voluntary payment is a nice way to show respect for the artist.
First four photos took my wife and the rest are mine. First photo shows the parking field and the Sculpture park in on the other side of the road.

Matti’s art is so called ITE-art, which is Finnish contemporary folk art. The Abbreviation ITE, come from Finnish words Itse Tehty Elämä = Self Made Life. Every one of us can self-evaluate the art of Matti. Welcome to make a virtual visit with us.

Thank You commenting. I am glad that You did find among these sculptures something interesting. For a photographer who visits this park for the first time, there are too much to see and to explore details of them.

I hope your move went well and you are happy in your new Helsinki home. You might have missed the last few posts in my visit to Helsinki series if you might like to rake a look. Good to hear from you again, M.

So many “people” (sculptures) in one single garden! It’s difficult to decide where to look first, because all of them have very expressional (and friendly looking) faces, many gesticulate rather interesting and the texture is fantastic. Really amazing as sometimes I hardly can believe that they actually were made out of cement (of course they are).
What a nice surprise to have the virtual opportunity to walk through Matti Lepistö’s sculpture park! Thank you! It’s nice to have you back again after your move, Matti. ^^

Those are amazing sculptures! You and your wife did a wonderful job photographing them. I loved the faces on many of the sculptures. They showed joy and optimism of the people as he must have envisioned them or knew them.

I’m glad to hear that you are settled into your new home and are posting photos again!

Thank You. Languages are my hobby. English I learned in school, Spanish while working 4½ months in Spain, French by reading books with dictionary and Portuguese on two winter courses. My Portuguese teacher was phenomenal. She inspired and encouraged everybody. I am happy that she follows my blog and observe who manage. All these need hard work, because every languages have their own specialties.

I am SO impressed!!! I’m slowly learning German phrases because friends of mine are fluent in this language. SO not easy. I’m still only at the point I am not able to off the top of my head speak except for a few phrases. I must still be reading what I say. Tough but I LOVE the challenge. Languages do not come easy for me yet the more I put JOY into what I am doing, the easier it gets. Just loving the idea you can speak four languages. Which language do you think in? Or do you begin to think in a certain language when you become proficient in it? Curious minds here …. 🙂 ❤

Thank You again. Well, when talking of writing, I have learnt to think in English, Spanish and French, but not yet in Portuguese. I am glad that You are learning a new language – German. My wife speaks it quite god and I know the basics of it.In Finland we are lucky that we can watch movies and series in their original language and having translation on the screen at same time.

Sometimes we also watch direct from Germany movies and series. This link gives You the possibility to do so:

Thank YOU so much for this link. I just bookmarked it. I’m working right now on a very short email to speak in German for a friend who is ill. He has no idea I’ve been practicing and I warned him no belly jiggles with laughter now. I worked hard on my accent. LOL I like to exaggerate my words and in fact ….. shhhhhh ….. I made up my own language so I can just off the top of my head go on and on rolling r’s. I LOVE rolling r’s for some reason. With English there is no r rolling. Now mind you my only audience are my cats and they LOVE it when I speak this “language”. I become dramatic. LOL Too funny. I cannot believe I just told you that. Tee hee ….. 🙂